HE’S NO MESSI BUT MADRID NOW HAVE EYES ON HAZARD

EDEN HAZARD’S FA Cup final performance has done nothing to dampen Real Madrid’s desire to sign him this summer and neither has his admission that he just can’t help being unselfish.

As the Champions League finalists look to rebuild for next season, the aim is not to replace Cristiano Ronaldo but to surround him with players who will compliment him — and Hazard fits perfectly.

‘My father always told me that I’m too selfless and maybe it’s true,’ the Belgian forward said in the build-up to the final. ‘I think now if you want to win something like the Ballon d’Or or the topscorer (award), you need to be selfish. But I’m not like that, not at all,’ he said.

With Ronaldo hoping to win his sixth Ballon d’Or this year, and the supreme individualist Neymar still wanted by Madrid, they don’t need another player driven by personal goals. Hazard’s contentment to let others stand in the limelight increases his chances of completing his journey from Braine-le-Comte in Belgium to the Bernabeu.

‘Coaches have tried to change me, I’ve tried too, but I just can’t,’ he said.

Hazard is now closer to Spain than at any time since 2016, when Real Madrid’s pursuit of him began. In 2017, there were whispers that he had already been shown around the club’s Valdebebas training ground. Last summer, however, Kylian Mbappe replaced him as the priority. And in the last few weeks of their current disastrous league campaign, Neymar’s arrival has been talked up.

But that deal remains one that will be far easier to complete in 2019, when Madrid believe the Brazilian can activate a buy-out clause that will allow him to leave for the same £200million fee Paris Saint Germain paid for him last summer.

Hazard, as a consequence, looks increasingly like Madrid’s top target. ‘Hazard gives the FA Cup to Chelsea,’ was Marca’s headline in Spain yesterday. The fact that the penalty was dispatched past Spain’s No 1 and long-time Real Madrid target David de Gea did not go unnoticed. Neither did the fact that Jose Mourinho’s tactics were designed to stop him and failed. Barcelona will complete the signing of Antoine Griezmann on July 1 when his buyout clause at Atletico Madrid drops from €200m to €100m.

Real Madrid will have to react. Hazard’s arrival would make it clear to Barcelona that they have not stolen a march on Madrid. They know that he is just as good a catch and one that will not disrupt the balance at Madrid in the way that Griezmann’s arrival could at Barcelona.

Barcelona’s Belgian defender Thomas Vermaelen certainly knows all about his international team-mate’s ability.

‘There are (similarities) I think. Of course, it is difficult to compare anyone to Messi but they both have that low centre of gravity so they can turn and twist very quickly.

‘They have that element of surprise in their game that you don’t know which way they are going to turn and they can move so quickly. Hazard is not Messi but he’s a worldclass player.’

That will be good enough for Real Madrid.